The white stuff is mostly harmless, I believe it's Spittlebug. It's an egg deposit from an insect that will later feed on the leaves but really doesn't do much damage. I've only seen it on taller grasses and vegetables here (central Italy) but I guess if there is no real other vegetation available they settle on olive shoots. Did you also see them up higher in trees?

@marxagarden

9 ай бұрын

Thank you, it isn't very prolific and I haven't seen it anywhere else. It's good to know that they aren't doing much harm.

I have currently about 40 olive trees, half of which I planted recently, as we had far too much land just not doing anything, and there was plenty left for growing other trees such has fruit, and more than enough room for our vegetables. although he price of olives has fallen over the past decade it stills bring in some income. when we arrived the trees were tall but produced over 1,000 kg that was with 20 trees, since pruning back over the years to a more manageable size the quantity has reduced but the quality has risen they are bigger and less fall from the tree, and the sizes are consistent

@marxagarden

Жыл бұрын

It’s good to know that a small number of trees can be so productive and that a good pruning can increase quality.

maybe theres truffles? pigs love em.

@marxagarden

Жыл бұрын

Probably some fungai life down there for sure. But as its in the orchard it's not too much of a problem the worst is when they get into the vegetable garden.

We have about 20 trees but can harvest another 5. I've been keeping my eye on abandoned groves in our area (of which there are many). As you talk about in this video there are many family owned properties that go abandoned and people are happy for someone else to take care of the grove. The main issue I foresee is that their expectations of 'keeping it clean' involves a lot of mowing which I'm not keen to do. Just for comparison, what does the press charge for pressing? Here it's about 25 euro per 100kg of olives so it can certainly add up after a while. We usually get 10-15% oil content which is not superb. Add to that the lack of value people give to oil and it means it's no longer worth it to harvest and press. I am originally from Belgium and do have a plan to export some oil to my home country where it should be worth about double (20-25 euro per liter) what the going rate is over here (12 euro per liter).

@marxagarden

9 ай бұрын

Yes I agree, the expectations of keeping the groves clean are very high and especially as practicing regenerative care you can run into some moral dilemmas. Julian in my other videos on olive trees, who is taking care of many more abandoned groves, tries to have a conversation with the owners and get them on board with the plan. But if they are quite bull headed on having to till, then he will make a compromise, but he has a tractor so it's not much of a sacrifice besides the ecological cost. I'm not sure of the costs to press as this is my first year. Definitely the economics are not viable especially when considering all the costs involved. I envision it as a community building project where friends and family can get together and harvest and later divide up the oil and costs of pressing. Good luck on exporting that could make it worth your time!

@stijnt2377

9 ай бұрын

@@marxagarden thanks, I'll keep you posted how it goes.

tell us about the yield per tree and how much oil you could expect please

@marxagarden

6 ай бұрын

This year we only harvested from three trees and got about 15 liters. I didn't keep great notes but I think it was just under 180 kilos of olives. I'll keep better notes next year. Not all the trees were worth harvesting this year because of the drought and perhaps because we didn't fertilize with manure which is recommended, especially when making the switch to regenertive practices.

Just adore olive trees! We would love to see the tutorial on how they should be pruned! How old are these olive trees?

@marxagarden

Жыл бұрын

I’ll have to check on how old they are. I’ll ask my 86 year old neighbour who planted them. My guess would be that they are around 30 years old. Not old at all considering there are 1000 year old trees not too far from here, in the area of la Senía. It’s the largest concentration of 1000 year old trees in the world.

How old are those trees on average

@marxagarden

5 ай бұрын

They are between 40 and 50 years old according to my 88 year-old neighbor who planted them.